Why does Israel matter?

Imagine living in West Des Moines under the threat, that at any moment, a terrorist rocket could be launched toward your community from a nearby site.

Would you send your children to school? Would you go to work? Would you even go to the grocery store? Would major cultural and sporting events be canceled? Would life as you and your family know it grind to a halt?

As I stood in both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem earlier this month during the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, that is exactly the scenario I began to contemplate as the threat of terrorist-launched rockets from Gaza — a scant 40-plus miles away — provided us approximately 90 seconds to seek shelter. That is roughly the distance between Newton and West Des Moines.

Despite that omnipresent threat, the beaches of Tel Aviv and cafes of Jerusalem were packed, entrepreneurs were pitching me about their start-up companies, children were playing outside and Israelis were living their lives.

Why does this matter to Iowans, who are thousands of miles away from the images of war appearing inside our newspapers and within our social media feeds?

Sure, in recent months, a number of Iowa’s business leaders and government officials have been taking steps to expand investment and trade between our state and Israel. But there is simply more than commerce at stake in the Middle East. It is the preservation of a set of shared values, democratic ideals and human dignity.

While in Jerusalem, I had the humbling opportunity to speak with a woman whose family and community lives along the Gaza border. Her raw emotion, exhaustion and bravery was palpable as she described how families in her village (or kibbutz) have 15 seconds to seek shelter during rocket attacks, how an attack hit their community that very morning, and the psychological trauma to children brought on by these constant threats.

I examined the shrapnel in my hands from a prior rocket attack upon her community as she demonstrated a “Monopoly-style” board game that had been created by therapists to help children cope with growing up within the shadows of terror. I heard the stories of children who go to bed fully clothed and literally sleep with one foot on the floor so as to not lose a precious second if the rocket sirens wail.

The heartbreaking stories exist on both sides of the Israel-Gaza border. I spoke with an exasperated Palestinian human rights activist about the hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid confiscated by Hamas to build a vast infrastructure of terror. I visited with a young Israeli special forces solider who saw with his own eyes the restraints used by Hamas on its own civilians to create human shields when launching rockets from residential neighborhoods.

As one senior member of the Israeli parliament told me, “The fight is over a culture that values life, versus a culture that values death.” Or, perhaps it was said more succinctly by one Israeli when I commented on the resolute nature of the nation’s citizens: “It is easy to find moral clarity when rockets are falling on your kindergartens.”

Iowans, like most Americans, are weary from a decade-plus of war that has depleted billions from our treasury and exacted an even greater cost in American blood. I am equally confident Iowans join me in hoping and praying that it does not take similar attacks on our kindergartens for Americans to have the resolve to stand with those who share our values, even if they are thousands of miles from home.

Matt Strawn, an Ankeny businessman and former chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, is a founding board member of Iowans Supporting Israel, a nonpartisan group of statewide business, civic and faith leaders who are encouraging stronger ties between Iowa and Israel. Contact him at mnstrawn@strawnco.com.